V8 Supercars star Craig Lowndes looks to Ferrari for Le Mans drive

Ex-champ swaps the Red Lion for a Prancing Horse.

Want to hear something amazing? Craig Lowndes has climbed the podium at nearly half of the V8 Supercars races he's entered. There's also a trio of championship trophies on his mantle, flanked by five Bathurst 1000 Enduro Cups. Now, he's set to drive a GT3 Ferrari at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February and, if things go according to plan, at the Circuit de la Sarthe in June.

The Aussie star will reportedly be at the helm of Maranello Motorsports' 458 Italia GT3 for next year's Bathurst 12, switching over from the Audi R8 LMS ultra he piloted at the 2013 edition. As you can see, Maranello's GT3 at Mount Panorama is about as intense as it gets:

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Lowndes is the Bathurst master, so we're eager to see what he can do with a race-spec 458.

But he's also hoping the tie-up with Ferrari will land him in Sarthe this summer, a challenge he's been eyeing since the mid-1990s. Though his endgame is to take on Le Mans in the LMP1 field (like his countryman Mark Webber), Lowndes says the GT class is the most logical starting point.

This isn't the first motorsport endeavor outside of touring cars for the 39-year-old: His career began in Formula Ford, and he's dabbled in rallying in addition to a brief stint in F3 as Juan Pablo Montoya's teammate.

There aren't many current drivers more talented than Lowndes, and we're hoping he makes it to Le Mans in the Ferrari GT3 monster.